August 21, 2009

Need I Say More?


Need I say more?

No, but I will.

President Abraham Lincoln said a lot in his address at Gettysburg, but the one statement that has always gotten my attention was this:
"that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln - November 19, 1863

The speech, itself, was to honor the fallen of the war, and to dedicate a portion of the land where they had fallen, but it, in a sense, became much more than that, in that the words came to define democracy, itself, and are taken quite seriously by many with the strong conviction that the words meant what they said, and that it would ever be so. However, there are too many who think that they are nothing more than "words, just words," and what a travesty it all has become.

How far we have fallen as a nation, but the flaming fire of that conviction--the conviction that freedom, and the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth-- still burns as brightly as ever in the hearts of most of the citizens of our great country.

That in itself, should give us the determination to stand, even in the face of all adversity.